Device for applying protectors to toilet seats



June 3, 1930. 1 H. MULLER 1,761,637

DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTORS T0 TOILET SEATS Filed June 27, 1929 SSheets-Sheet 1 June 3, 1930, M UL 1,761,637

DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTORS TO TOILET'SEATS Filed June 27} 1929 s Sheets-Sheet 2 WMLZZMM June 3, 1930.

H. MULLER DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTORS TO TOILET SEATS Filed June 2'7, 1929 i 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 L 54 June 3, 1930 V \H. MULLER 1,761,637

DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTOR S 'TO TOILET SEATS Filed June 27, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Ju e 3, '1930.

H. MULLER DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTORS TO TOILET SEATS Filed June 27, 1929 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented June 3, 1930 HENRY ivrtinnnaon PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA I DEVICE non APPLYING PROTECTORS To TOILET SEATS Application filed'J'une 27,

My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in a device forapplying protectors to toilet seats and has for its objectto so construct and organize such a device that protectors in tubular form will be applied to the two halves of a seat prior to the latter being lowered into its normal position, thus giving sanitary protection to the user of the toilet.

A further object of the invention is to provide means for automatically slipping the tubular protectors and deposit them in. the bowl when the toilet is flushed.

With these and other ends in View this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of elements hereinafter set forth and then specifically designated by the claims. 1 j

In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains may understand how to make and use the same, I'will describe its construction in detail, referring by numerals to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this application, in

which Fig. 1, is a front elevation of a toilet showing my improved device applied thereto, the seat being raised. I V

Fig. 2, is a plan view of Fig. 1, the seat being in its lowered position.

Fig. 3, is a side elevation of Fig. 1, the seatbeing broken away and sectioned to show its position when the stripping member of the treadle is locked to the main member of said treadle.

Fig. 8, is a View similar to 7 showing the position of the compound 'treadle just prior to its final depression.

Fig. 9, is a view similar to Fig. 8 showing the position of the various members of'the 1929. Serial No. 374,014.

compound treadle after the main treadle has been completely depressed.

Fig. 0, represents one of the protector envelopes.

In carrying out the invention as herein embodied, 11 represents the ordinary toilet bowl to which is hinged the seat 12 by the pintle rod 13 passing through thelugs 14 secured to the bowl and the hinged leaves 15-secured to the seat, this rod serving a further purpose to be hereinafter explained; the seat being of that type which consists of two sections not united at their front ends.

Each of the sections of the seats has hinged thereto, as at 16, a stripper 17 of such shape that when these strippers are closed upon the upper surfaces of the sections of the'seats, for forming, in practise, a partof the seats and each of these strippers as a bracket 18 se cured thereto, said brackets terminating in elongated eyes 19 into which project the pins 20, said pins being secured tothe pintle rod 13. This arrangement provides for the swinging of the strippers to the position shown in Fig. 4 by the revolving of the pintle rod 18,

the latter, action being effected by the crank 21 secured to one end of the rod.

The seat has secured thereto the arm 22 carrying a counterbalanced weight 23 to facilitate the hereinafter described opera tion of the seat.

24 represents the main member of a compound treadle which is hinged at 25 to a suitable block 26 secured upon the floor along: side the bowl, and to this main member is pivoted the seat actuating member 27 by the rod 28' and this seat actuating member has pivoted thereto at 29 the link 30 which in turn is pivoted at 31 to the block 26 so that when the main treadle member 24 is depressed, the pivoted end of this seat actuating member will be swung upward while its inner free end will be swung downward, the link 30 bringing about this movementand as the outer end ofthemember 27 is connected to the arm 22 by the chain 32, the seat will be swung upward when the free end of the member 27 is forced down, as just described.

33 represents the stripper actuating meniber of the compound treadle and is hinged as at 34 to'the member 24, its free end being connected to the rod 35 by the pin 36, the upper end of this rod being connected to the crank 21, and from the heel of this member 33 projects upward a fin 37 for engagement with the notch 38 formed in the latch bar 39, said bar being pivoted at 40 to the member 24; the rear end of the bar being provided with an overbalancing weight 41 while the forward end of this latch bar is slotted as at 42 through which slot projects the trip rod 43, said rod passing downward through the slot 44 in the member 24 and being secured in the block 26 while its upper end is bent at right angles for contacting with the upper surface of the latch bar.

A tappet post 45 is secured in the block 26 and extends upward through the slot 47 in the member 24, the function of which is to hold the latch bar in the position shown in Fig. 5 so as to prevent the fin 37 from entering into engagement with the notch 38 which will leave the member 33 out of action regardless of the actuation of the member 24 until said fin is permitted to engage said notch.

The member 27 is connected by a chain or flexible cord 48' with the ordinary flush valve lifting mechanism of the tank 49 so that when the member 24 is depressed thereby depressing the inner end of the member 27, not only will the seat be swung upward to its normal vertical position, but the bowl will be flushed by the opening of the fiush valve.

From the foregoing description, the operation of my improvement will be obviously as follows A nest of protector envelopes 50 each having a weakened line 51 formed therein are placed in the delivery tubes 52, such tubes being mounted upon the tank or in any other convenient manner so that when the seat is swung to its normal vertical position, the ends of the seat will be beneath the tubes 52 so that by the releasing of the bottom protector envelope in each tube, these envelopes will fall downward and surround each prong of the seat. Any suitable mechanism for releasing envelopes may be utilized as such mechanism forms no part of my present invention.

After the protector envelopes have been applied to the seat, the latter is closed down upon the bowl by hand, which operation rotates the pintle rod 13 on account of the pins 20. projecting into the elongated eyes 19.

This rotation of the rod causes the crank 21 to elevate the outer end of the member 33 from the position shown in Fig. 5 to the position shown in Fig. 3 at which time the latch 39 is held out of engagement with the fin 37 so that should the seat be again swung to a vertical position, the member 33 will be free to follow this movement, but when the member 33 is in the position shown in Fig. 3, the depression of the member 24 of the compound treadle will first lift the latch clear of the tappet 45, permitting the fin 37 to engage the notch 38 as the latch 39 swung downward by its weight 41.

After the fin has engaged the notch, the further depression of the member 24 will move the member 33 upward, rotating the tripper rod 33 through the connecting ro'l 35 and crank 21 and this rotation of the tripper rod 13 will swing the pins 20 downward and by the action of these pins upon the brackets 18 will tilt the strippers 17 so as to tear the envelopes previously placrrl around the strippers and the seat, thereby freeing said envlopes in order that they may fall in the bowl.

During the same movements of the member 24 which brings about this tripping .(f the envelopes, the outer end of the member 27 will be depressed thereby flushing the toilet and return the seat to its vertical position as before described.

In order that the envelopes, when strippr from the seat, may be guided into the proper position within the bowl to be destroyed by the rush of water to the bowl, I provide two guide wires 54, each of which is pivoted as at 55 to one of the sections of the sea; the inner ends adapted to swing down into the bowl, as clearly shown in full lines in Fig. 4 and in dotted lines in Fig. 3, the heel ends of said wires lying between the strippers and the seat so that when the stripper are in their closed positions, the wires will be held upon the under side of the seat, preferably in grooves 56, but when the strippers are tilted thereby freeing the heel ends of these wires, said wires will be free to drop by gravity into the proper positions for the proper guiding of the stripped envelopes to the interior of the bowl.

In order that the chain 32 may have a spring pull, 1 provide the torsion wire which is stapled at 58 to the member 27 leaving one section thereof free and this free section has an eye 59 formed on the outer end thereof to which the chain 32 is attached. This arrangement provides for permitting the depression of the compound member 24 of the treadle, while the seat is held down, but when the seat is released, this torsion wire will swing it upward, thus avoiding damage to the apparatus should the treadie be depressed while the seat is held down.

At or near thecompletion of the depression of the member 24 of the treadle, the heel end of the latch bar 39 will engage with the trip rod 43 and disengage the latch from the in by permitting the member 33 to. swing downward to the position shown in Fig. 9.

From the foregoing description, the operation of my improvement will be obviously as follows Envelopes being dropped over the prongs of the seat andthe seat depressed, a sanitary surface is provided for the user and thereafter the depression of the member 24 of the compound treadle will strip the envelopes and cast them into the bowl, at the same time flushing the bowl ultimately and returning the seat to a vertical position for the reception of the envelopes.

Many attempts have heretofore been made to render toilet seats sanitary but'with little or no commercial success due to the fact that provision was not made to automatically strip the seat of any covering which may have been applied thereto and disposed of the same through the bowl, but by the use of my improvement this disadvantage has been entirely overcome and the user does not have to use care or judgment in the manipulation of the apparatus since the sanitary covering is readily applied to the seat and thereafter stripped and disposed of through the bowl by the simple operation of depressing a treadle.

Of course I do not wish to be limited to the exact details of construction as herein shown, as these may be varied within the limits of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and useful is 1. In a device of the character described, a pronged seat; strippers carriedby said seat; a pintle rod, means for actuating the strippers by the rotation of the pintle rod; a crank secured upon the pintle rod, a compound treadle consisting of a member to be actuated by foot, a second member pivoted to the first named member, and a third member hinged to thefirst named member, a rod connecting said crank with the third member of the treadle, a latch fin carried by said third member, a pivoted latch carried by the first member of the treadle, said latch having a notch to be engaged by said fin; a tappet for normally holding the latch out of engagement with the fin while permitting it to engage therewith during the initial depression of the foot-actuated member of the treadle, whereby the said third member of the treadle will be brought into action to rotate the pintle rod, means for disengaging the latch from the fin near the completion of the depression of the foot actuated member; a counter-weighted arm secured to the seat, means for flexibly connecting said arm with the second member of the treadle, and means also connected with the second member of the treadle for flushing the toilet when the foot member of the treadle is depressed.

2. In a device of the character described, a pronged seat, a stripper hinged upon each prong of said seat, means for swinging the seat to a vertical position, means for applying sanitary envelopes to the prongs of the seat, and means for actuating the strippers to tear said envelopes and deposit the same in the bowl of the toilet.

3. In a device of the character described, a base block, a compound treadle consistingot a foot-actuated member hinged to said block, a second member pivoted to the first named member and linked to said block, and a third member hinged to the firstnamed member, means for latching the third member in alignment with the foot-actuated member, means for unlatching said third member, stripper mechanism, means for connecting the stripper mechanism to the third member of the treadle, a flush valve and a seat, and means for connecting the flush valve and seat elevating means to the second member.

4. In combination with a toilet, a hinged seat adapted to receive sanitary protector envelopes, strippers hinged to said seat for splitting said envelopes and manually controlled means for actuating said strippers.

5. In a device of the character described, a pronged toilet seat having a stripper hinged upon each prong, brackets extending from the strippers, said brackets having elongated eyes therein, a pintle rod by which the seat is hinged to the bowl of a toilet, pins carried by the pintle rod and projecting into the elongated eyes of the brackets, and means tor rotating the pintle rod for tilting the strippers.

6. In a device of the character described, a pronged toilet seat having a stripper hinged upon each prong; brackets extending from the strippers, said brackets having elongated eyes therein, a pintle rod by which the seat is hinged to the bowl of a toilet; pins carried by the pintle rod and projecting into the elongated eyes of the brackets, a crank se cured upon the pintle rod, a compound treadle, and a rod for connecting the crank to one member of said treadle.

7. In a device of the character described, a pronged toilet seat, a pintle rod for hinging said seat to the bowl of the toilet; an arm secured to the seatand extending rearward carrying a counter-balancing weight, a stripper hinged to each of the prongs of the seat, bracketsprojecting from the strippers, said brackets having elongated eyes, pins carried by the pintle rod and eyes; a crank secured upon the pintle rod, a compound treadle, means for connecting said arm to one member of said treadle, means for connecting the crank to another member of said treadle, and means connected to the first named member of the treadle, for flushing the toilet in unison with the actuation of the strippers and the elevation of the seat when the treadle is actuated.

8. In a device of the character described, a pronged seat, adapted to recei e sanitary envelopes, a pintle rod for hinging said seat to the bowl of the toilet, a stripper hinged to projecting into thev sidewise inwardly, means.

eeeh of the prongs ofthe seat so as to tilt for tilting said strippers and guide Wires pivoted to the seat and so positioned as t0;be released by the tilting of thezstrippers, said guide Wires serving to direct the fall of the envelopes when stripped from the seat.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto fiixed my signature.

HENRY MULLER. 

